Gait research, the study of walking and running, was critical not only to developing OESH, but also to developing a new department at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Kerrigan, who received her M.D. from Harvard Medical School, played a central role in establishing the department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard. The article, co-written by fellow OESHer, Hilary Siebens, M.D., who is also a Harvard Medical School graduate, is the first of a two-part series describing the development of the departments at Harvard and Johns Hopkins. This article which focuses on Harvard, includes how Dr. Kerrigan’s building one of the first 3D gait laboratories in the world at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital (SRH) (http://spauldingrehab.org/) was critical to establishing the department at Harvard.

Kerrigan’s intellectual curiosity and diligence in securing grant support led to the establishment of a gait analysis laboratory at SRH. With encouragement from Lipson and Young, Kerrigan applied to the Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education for approval of a new curriculum for the establishment of a Harvard PM&R residency program (Wainapel and Siebens, 6).”

After only a few months, the division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation that Dr. Kerrigan helped establish became a full department. Ultimately, that same gait laboratory that she built in 1992 was critical to establishing OESH as well.